The Mary Tyler Moore Show (TV Series) Support Your Local Mother (1970) User Reviews

The Invasion of Mrs. Morgenstern

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 27 January 2017]

The arrival of Ida Morgenstern disrupts the quiet of Mary's apartment. Because they fight whenever they see each other, Rhoda refuses to see her. You guessed it. She moves in with Mary. She is a horrible roommate. She is too kind on the one hand and totally demanding on the other. She give presents and then assumes they aren't good enough. Anyway, Mary can't ever hurt anyone's feelings, so she lives with it. But it begins to affect her work life. There is one of those really great scenes in Mr. Grant's office where he actually threatens to fire her. Of course, he has not intention of doing so, but things that transpire are hilarious. Nancy Walker, one of those actresses that always grated on me, is the perfect Jewish mother, prickly and protective.

The apple does fall close to the tree !

[ronnybee2112 · 8/10 · 1 March 2021]

We get a front- row seat for some rather selfish family dysfunction from the Morgansterns,Rhoda and her Mom 'Ida'. (The Quicker-picker-upper paper-towel lady🌞) Somehow the Morgansterns cannot,will not work through their family problems privately, instead they wind-up dragging Mary into their dysfunctional dramatics. Basically,Rhoda's mom 'Ida' comes to town for some reason or another,and appears in a chair right outside Mary's hallway door.(Rhoda lives in the same building) Mary figures that Ida accidentally came to the wrong apartment or she is waiting for Rhoda to get home. Mary invites Ida into the house until Rhoda gets home,and Mary ends up getting stuck with Ida much longer than expected or is reasonable. On top of this,Mary is playing the defacto referee/diplomat/ middleman between Ida and Rhoda! This is the basic plot of the episode. I cannot help but feel that Mary was 'tag-teamed' by the selfish Mother/Daughter Morganstern family. Probably the worst part of this - is the inescapable idea that absolutely nothing has been learned by Mary from this unneeded and unwanted 'spin cycle'! This vile intrusion into Mary's quiet life was met with no resistance,as Mary simply was not expecting this,she had no experience,no preparation,she had never had any need to deal with people and situations like this before now ! The Morgansterns have now established a bad precedent,which could become a bad pattern. Mary may need to talk rough and mean,and hurt a few 'feelings' if she is to break-free of these psychic-vampires! I'm on Mary's side! Go Mary !

Lots of laughs

[Rrrobert · 8/10 · 21 June 2019]

The funniest episode so far introduces Rhoda's passive-aggressive mother Ida (Nancy Walker). Ida's infuriating behaviour soon has Mary going nuts and messing up at work, leading to Mary's first tearful outburst and an "angry" one from Lou.

Fun Episode, with One Very Annoying Exception

[Littlelep · 19 April 2019]

The episodes with Rhoda's mother, Ida, are some of the best; but here, the writers, in order to insert some drama, have Mary call home to reach Ida to bring Ted a new insignia. A new insignia was not necessary. The old one (loose threads) could easily have been sewn down.

Introducing a very amusing guest character

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 29 January 2024]

Nancy Walker starts as Ida Morganstern, Rhoda's VERY Jewish and smothering mother. She's so difficult for Rhoda to deal with that she has simply refused to answer her door to her. So, Ida sits in the hallway...and she ends up making a lot of noise and Mary finds her. Mary, being a ridiculously nice person, takes her in and tries to help. Not surprisingly, it ends up being MUCH tougher than just letting Ida stay for the night.

While Nancy Walker never achieved much stardom as a contract player for MGM during her younger days and certainly should NOT have tried her hand at directing (she directed the Village People in the god-awful "Can't Stop the Music"), she was absolutely perfect playing a smothering Jewish mom. She only appeared on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" a few times...but they were all wonderful appearances.

Overall, a very funny and memorable episode. While I don't think it's the best episode of season one, it's one of the better ones...and it received an Emmy for Outstanding Writing.